Vidmar banned for two matches

By Greg Buckle, 22 Nov 2009 Greg Buckle is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: A-League, Adelaide United, Aurelio Vidmar, football, saudi arabia

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Adelaide United have banned coach Aurelio Vidmar for two A-League matches following comments Vidmar made about taking his players to Saudi Arabia where he could chop their heads off.

Vidmar, who has also been handed a $10,000 fine, said on Saturday he would have to “take his medicine”.

The coach was asked at a news conference on Thursday if he was being too “nice” and what measures he was planning to take to discipline his players.

“What would you like me to do, chop their heads off? I can do that, we can go to Saudi Arabia and we can do that,” Vidmar said.

He later released a statement apologising for the remarks and describing Saudi Arabia as a great country.

After a 1-1 draw with Gold Coast United at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night, Adelaide United announced Vidmar’s punishment on Saturday.

The club-imposed sanctions have been approved by Football Federation Australia, Adelaide United said in a statement.

The FFA had threatened to sanction Vidmar over the comments.

“Our coach Aurelio Vidmar made comments in response that we believe were inappropriate and whilst made in jest and flippantly, were in poor taste,” Adelaide United CEO Sam Ciccarello said.

Vidmar said on Saturday his comments had been unacceptable.

“As Sam said it was flippant and off the cuff, but I need to understand and realise that I am one of many faces of the club and behaviour like that is unacceptable, so I need to get better and I will get better,” Vidmar said.

I lost my cool absolutely, but Im still in control and Im still very focused on doing a job.

“I know that I’ll learn from this. I’ve learnt from other mistakes I’ve made in my life so this will make me a stronger person.”

Half of the $10,000 fine will be paid immediately towards a community endeavour, with the remaining $5,000 to be held off until the end of the Hyundai A-League 2010/11 season, the club said.

Vidmar will be banned from match-day coaching for the games against North Queensland Fury and the Newcastle Jets.

“We accept that Aurelio had a poor choice of words in his response,” Ciccarello added.

“We accept that he is contrite and he has apologised publicly, to the governing body and the club.”

Adelaide United, with four wins from 15 matches this season, will travel to Townsville to play the Fury next Saturday.

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The Crowd Says (5) | Page 1 of Comments

westy said | November 22nd 2009 @ 8:36pm | Report comment

We know he would have been Ok if he had said ‘I should take them to texas to execute them by lethal injection” differential standards
By the way if Aurelio really thinks Saudi Arabia is a great country he really is in trouble

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- dasilva said | November 22nd 2009 @ 8:40pm | Report comment
  
  I agree with your comment there westy
  
  However we are in Asia. Whether we like it or not, Asia are pretty sensitive to these flippant remarks. There’s a whole lot of issues of pride and losing face that Asian countries have that Western don’t have whether we like it or not.
  
  It’s not in our best interest to piss them off and create diplomatic incidence
  
  So yeah it’s understandable penalty
  
  Reply
  - dasilva said | November 22nd 2009 @ 8:52pm | Report comment
    
    as an indication of how seemingly trivial things can cause offense
    
    http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2008/s2426887.htm
    
    Really, sometimes I feel Asian just got to take things easy sometimes.
    
    Reply
Pippinu said | November 22nd 2009 @ 8:38pm | Report comment

“By the way if Aurelio really thinks Saudi Arabia is a great country he really is in trouble ”

He’s thinking the opposite – surely?!

Isn’t that why he’s in trouble with the FFA?

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westy said | November 22nd 2009 @ 9:27pm | Report comment

Pip you have to read the whole article he says so in his apology.
Da Silva whilst you or i may not have said it as it was completely unnecessary I become increasingly concerned about the standards applied to these off the cuff comments . The FFA has raised the bar very high. I have no problem with this but I suspect as you they will be applied differentially. Whatever happened to a phone call and “pull your head in ” and say it was inappropriate.
I love the Aussie diggers description of the DUTCH forces who are responsible for security in one of their sectors
‘”Don’t Understand The Concept Here” I am sure they will be apologising soon.
I suggest we will not be seeing any more john Cleese ” Do not mention the war ” episodes in relation to japan let alone afew Mohammed jokes. It will all go underground . Smiles all round
The problem is I was in Indonesia when the they went crazy against the Chinese . The daty before they smiled at the chinese traders the next day they killed them. I retreated to Singapore.
What Aurelio should have said is that he will take them to Saudi Arabia and tell the they have defamed islam or better still to thailand and said their King was an old prick.

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